The Japanese quotative –tte constructions at home
Kiyono Fujinaga
University at Buffalo
Abstract
The present study analyzes the use of Japanese quotative –tte construction in interactions between caregivers and children at home. By examining the naturally occurring conversation data of 3 Japanese families in Japan and 3 Japanese heritage families in the US, the study points out 1) the quotative –tte constructions are frequently used without the matrix verbs or with the verb ‘to do’, rather than the verbs of cogitation or communication, 2) both Japanese mothers and children in Japan use such quotative markers to engage in socialization acts while such uses of quotative constructions were not observed in US Japanese heritage families.
The ongoing subjectification/intersubjectification process of Japanese quotative –tte constructions have been pointed out in recent studies. In the subjective use of –tte construction, the speaker can convey the source of information as a hearsay marker (Hasegawa, 2015). The intersubjective use can be found in the utterance-final –tte, when speakers signal the prior utterance should be interpreted as a joke (Suzuki, 2007). My study presents another piece of evidence of Japanese quotative –tte construction acquiring intersubjective meaning. Recently, Japanese quotative constructions have been investigated within Language Socialization frameworks. Burdelski (2015) examined the Japanese caregivers and children’s interactions and found that the quotative constructions were used by the caregivers to “gloss”, or translate, the other children and/or adults’ communicative intentions and guild the children to respond accordingly. My study discovers another usage of quotative constructions in interactions between caregivers and children at home.
This study found that quotative clauses were often used without accompanying the main clause with typical matrix verbs such as cogitation verbs or communication verbs. Rather, the quotative clauses were used in light verb constructions with mimetic words such as gyuu tte suru ‘gyuu (mimetic words describing a hugging action) QUO do’ or used on their own. Such use of quotative constructions serves intersubjectively conveying the speaker’s desire as well as taking the addressee’s viewpoint. This study further argues even young children use such quotative constructions to explain the motivations of their behaviors, which is not discussed in previous language socialization works in Japanese, where they tend to describe the caregivers as primal social agent and the children are passive learners.
Comparing the use of quotative –tte constructions in Japanese families in Japan and Japanese heritage families in US, this study brings in critical discussions as to what extent the cultural aspects plays a role in language acquisition.
(abstract 400 words)
Burdelski, M. (2015). Reported speech as cultural gloss and directive: Socializing norms of speaking and acting in Japanese caregiver-child triadic interaction. Text and Talk, 35(5), 575–595. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2015-0017
Hasegawa, Y. (2015). Japanese: A Linguistics Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Suzuki, R. (2007). (Inter)subjectification in the quotative tte in Japanese conversation. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 8(2), 207–237.